Alone in the Darkness 25-man - "Compendium" & discussion

[maky]

I`m going to use this thread to keep a tidy Yogg+0 guide for 25-man. First few posts are going to be the walloftext guide (for each phase, detailed), along with a summary and "wat2do" for everyone.

From that onwards, thread is going to be used for discussion, please do share everything on the matter.
Going to get all the "history" threads about Yogg in here too so they are for future references.

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GUIDE STARTS HERE
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Table of Contents

1. PREPARATION
1.1   Raid Setup
1.2   Consumables
1.3   Interface & Addons

2. OVERVIEW OF THE FIGHT
2.1   Brief description of abilties
2.2   Short explanation of key aspects

3. PHASE 1
3.1   Summary
3.2   Clouds
3.3   Positions
3.4   Interrupts
3.5   Sara's Fervor
3.6   Sara's Blessing
3.7   Individual survival

4. PHASE 2
4.1   Summary
4.2   Brain team details
4.3   Surface team details

5. PHASE 3
5.1   Summary
5.2   Empowering shadows assignments
5.3   Tanking assignments
5.4   DPS strategy and assignments

[maky]

1. Preparation

1.1 Raid Setup

First of all, the usual setup here is 2 tanks, 4 healers, 19 DPS. Here`s some key things that need to be taken care of :

• 2 paladins able to chain AM in P3 to stop silences.
• 3 taunters - raid members who are assigned to take the marked guardians out of the group. Hunters work best, the more the better.
• 1 rogue able to spread Wound Poison to all the guardians.
• 2 paladins having Aura Mastery, to rotate AM-Conc on every silence in Phase 3.
• A balanced raid setup with enough melee to take care of the brain and enough ranged to clean up the top.
• As many warlocks as possible

1.2 Consumables

Aside from the usual flasks, food & pots, a very good idea is to have LWers use [wowitem]29530[/wowitem], especially on each brain phase; but could help on the surface too.
Also, very helpful to have for the brain team (and not only!) are a bunch of these: [wowitem]2459[/wowitem].

1.3 Interface & Addons

There are a few key aspects that rely on good UI configuration :

Putting raid icons on beaconed Guardians.
The StratFu addon seems a very good option. I`ll try it and see how it goes. All explanations are in the link.

Targetting the marked Guardians.
There is no existing addon/macro that will target a mob with a specific raid icon. It will have to be done the hard way.
Also, it is recommended to have a nameplates addon which allows them to be made bigger, in order to have an easier time spotting and clicking (targetting) that precise mob. People seem to recommend Aloft.
Due to our final implementation of the strategy (relying on /target macros), we don`t need this though.

Announcing Blessing/Fervor/Malady as it starts casting, to allow reaction time.
I have successfully managed to get BW to announce Fervor and Blessing along with their target to be announced as Sara starts casting.
I have been unable to do so with Malady because Sara doesn`t seem to target someone during P2, but I can do a /rw Malady Inc.
Download link for my personal YoggSaron.lua file (with a few additions of my own). Note that it may throw a LUA error at some point, but so far it`s been working good for me. To download the file, right click the "Download link" and choose "Save Target As" (or "Save Link As", or similar). Save the file into the WoW\Interface\Addons\BigWigs_Ulduar directory, but make sure you backup your old YoggSaron.lua file in that directory first.

On-screen arrows for easier running from Malady.
This is a very handy tool to have, comes along with the DXE (Deus Vox Encounters) addon. It is a stand-alone bossmod, but for most of the people already used to DBM or BW, most of it`s features are already covered.
HOWEVER!, the Malady arrows are so pro we should all get this. Follow the link at the bottom of this comment to download DXE, install it and enable it.
Enter the configuration screen (either from minimap icon or do /dxe), and go to Encounters, load the Ulduar modules and select Yogg Saron. Disable everything at the bars, you`ll have to do that for each spell. Disable raid icons and sounds too, but keep the arrows enabled.
Customise the locations of arrows by playing with the defaut bar that appears when you load up the addon, but make sure you DO have them enabled for Yogg and Malady. It will definetly help alot with avoiding spreading.
Download DXE from here.

[maky]

2. Overview of the fight

2.1 Brief description of abilties

This is going to sound alot like wowwiki, going to make a quick summary of what to expect during the fight.
Highlighted in red are important aspects of these abilities.

Phase 1

Sara :

• Sara's Fervor : debuff cast on raid members, increases damage done by 20% and increases damage taken by 100%; 4 second cast time.
• Sara's Blessing : debuff cast on raid members, heals them for ~30k and places a DoT for 20 sec that deals 6k every 2 sec.
• Sara's Anger : debuff cast on Guardians, increases their physical damage done by 12k and puts a DoT on them (~12k per sec).

Guardian of Yogg-Saron :

• Dark Volley : deals an aoe ~10k shadow damage, also placing a debuff that reduces healing taken by 25% on everyone it hits; interruptible, 1.4s cast time.
• Shadow Nova : when dying, the Guardian will explode for 25k shadow damage in a short radius, damaging both Sara and raid members nearby.

Phase 2

Sara :

• Psychosis : cast on random raid members, deals 5k damage and reduces sanity by 9%; chain cast while not casting something else.
• Brain Link : cast on 2 random raid members, they will take 3k damage and lose 2 sanity per second as long as they are more than 20 yards apart.
• Malady of the Mind : cast on random raid member, target will flee in terror and suffer 5k damage and lose 3 sanity every second for 4 seconds; attempts to jump to a nearby target (within 10 yards) when the effect is over; 1.5s cast time.
• Death Ray : green beams that deal ~20k damage per second if you stand in them; avoid them.

Crusher Tentacle :

• Diminish Power : creates an aura that reduces all raid members` damage by 20%; this spell is channeled and is interrupted when the Crusher is hit with a melee ability (or autoattack).

Corruptor Tentacle :

• Curse of Doom : curse, 20k damage after 15 sec, decurse it.
• Draining Poison : poison, deals ~3k dmg per tick and drains ~1,5k mana per tick, dispel it.
• Black Plague : disease, while you have it you will be randomly stunned every few seconds, cleanse it.
• Apathy : magic debuff, 60% movement, attack and cast speed slow, dispel it.

Constrictor Tentacle :

• Squeeze : deals ~6k damage per tick and immobilises the target; kill the tentacle asap to get rid of this; HoP/BoP also work.

Brain of Yogg-Saron :

• Induce Madness : 60s cast, drives all nearby targets insane; cast within the brain itself, everyone in the brain team needs to exit before the cast is finished.

Illusion rooms :

• Lunatic Gaze : ~1,5k damage and 2 sanity lost per second while you`re facing a skull inside the illusion room; turn away from them to avoid this.
• Grim Reprisal : every time you deal damage to a tentacle, you are also hit for 60% of the amount.

Phase 3

Yogg-Saron :

• Lunatic Gaze : channeled for 4 seconds, if you face Yogg while he`s channeling it, you take ~6k damage per second and lose 4 sanity per second.
• Deafening Roar : ~6k physical damage as well as a 4 second aoe silence; this ability is cast once per minute.
• Empowering Shadows : the masterpiece (imo) of the encounter. This mechanic is a bit strange to understand at first. This ability is used 45 seconds into P3 and every 45 seconds after that. Yogg Saron will mark 3 Guardians. These 3 guardians will recieve a shadow beacon buff which lasts 10 sec. The buff itself does nothing, it`s just a counter. After the 10 seconds run out, Yogg will "shoot" Empowering Shadows at those 3 adds, giving them and any other NPC (Guardian or Yogg himself) that is within 20 yards of any of the 3 adds the Empowering Shadows buff, which is a huge heal over time (750k) that lasts 20 sec. It also stacks with itself, so if 2 of the 3 marked adds are close one to another, they (as well as any other mobs nearby) will get the buff 2 times (healing for double amount). The marked adds are very visible. They turn purple, recieve a mark on their head and also change name (during those 10 seconds) to "Marked Immortal Guardian".

Immortal Guardian :

• Empowered : self buff, increases damage done by 160%; they begin with 9 stacks of it and lose/gain one stack based on HP - every 10% lost/gained means a stack is lost/gained.
• Immortal : they never die, but remain at 1 HP.
• Drain Life : drains life from a random target, 5s channel time; drains ~3k per second and heals for ~30k per each tick drained.

Short explanations of key aspects

There are a few key things (which I will detail in the corresponding section) which need to be understood by everyone in the raid :

• Knowing all the dangers and how to avoid them, this includes, but doesn`t limit to: deaths due to Fervor, chaining Malady, going insane in P3.
• Managing your sanity, avoid losing it in Phase 2 (link, malady, skulls in brain room), and make a proper balance between solid DPS and safety in Phase 3.
• Properly understanding your assignment in each of the phases and doing maximum effort to acomplish it.
• Being able to play in a team, sticking together at top and helping teammates at bottom during P2.

[maky]

3. Phase 1

3.1 Summary

In this phase, our goal is to kill 8 Guardians of Yogg-Saron near Sara, without losing anyone from the raid. A smooth transition will leave us with only one Guardian to kill during the Phase 2 intro speech, which should die before the tentacles appear.
The dangers in this phase are spawning extra adds from clouds, losing people to a combo of explosion/blessing/fervor (2 of these are deadly usually), and failing to interrupt.
More details below.

3.2 Clouds

We shouldn`t spawn any clouds at all. We`re not gaining any time by spawning extras, because we`ll be far from the enrage on the kill. Never prioritise a cast over moving from a nearby cloud, let me repeat, NEVER DO THAT because it is the worst failure possible. Don`t try to be smart with tricks, just play it safe because we can meet the DPS checks in this phase very easily.
Ignoring this raid sentence will make your raid leader cry.

3.3 Positions

We`re going to tank the adds on top of Sara and blow them up there because it fits us best.
Ranged will be in the south side of the room, pretty much bunched up, and moving as little as possible. If you are a ranged DPS or healer, try to stick to that area, don`t be rambo when dodging clouds. If you did move out of range, come back to that spot as fast as you can.
Melee will stand in the middle with the tank carefully dodging the clouds. As melee, when the mob reaches 30-40%, move out of range for the blast, then resume melee range. Try to do that every time unless you have some ability that allows you to survive a blast without going dangerously low.
Everyone in melee range should pay special attention to the debuffs and make sure to run away from blasts if you have Fervor and run away within healer range if you have Blessing.

3.4 Interrupts

We`re starting to do this really good, but I`ll highlight it here anyways. As melee, your main priority is to interrupt all the Dark Volleys, don`t go crazy on the button spam. If we ever get an extra (which we shouldn`t), I`ll try to switch to it immediately, so everyone else can focus on the main target. It`s hard to recover from +0 extra spawns though, so let`s not do them.

3.5 Sara's Fervor

This debuff causes you to take double damage for 15 sec.
If you are a ranged, it won`t affect you, except the very unlikely event in which you get both Fervor and Blessing at the same time, in which case you should watch your hp carefully and pop a survival cooldown if you have any.
If you are a melee, make sure that you`re out of range for the blasts caused by the Guardians, as they will one-shot you. If you are melee, make sure that you always have Sara on focus and see her target and cast bar, or have some other means (addons) to see that she is casting Fervor on you, so you can move in advance. The excuse "I got the debuff 1 sec before the explosion" should be avoided, we all must make sure we clearly see how to do this. Check the Interface section (1.4) for my own BigWigs modification to this, it works most of the time.
If you are a tank, it`s the best time to pop a big cooldown to counter the effect of this (time it so it`s on during a blast).
For healers, configure your grid/healbot to show this debuff on it, and throw some PW:Shield on the persons who have it. I know I was getting it, so keep it up and nice work.

3.6 Sara's Blessing

This debuff heals you to full HP and then it puts a heavy DoT on you for 20 sec, it ticks for 6k every 2 seconds. Make sure that you are always in healer range, and if you are melee, avoid the blasts as they will hit you quite hard.
For healers, same comment applies, make sure you have your grid/healbot set up such that it shows this debuff.

3.7 Individual survival

Basically, ranged should just be careful to be in healer range when they got blessing.
Melee should run out on every explosion, or pop a cooldown and soak it. Be very careful of your health and never eat an explosion if you`re not topped off or can`t afford it.

[maky]

4. Phase 2

4.1 Summary

The goal of this phase is to bring the Brain of Yogg-Saron to 30% within three portal phases, while having top clean of tentacles, without losing people.
The process of P2 is quite complicated and there are some very precise assignments going on in the brain team, but these will be detailed below.
As a summary, the raid will be split in the brain team (or the bottom team) and the surface team (or the top team). The brain team consists of 9 melee DPS (hunters can join too) and 1 healer, and the surface team consists of the rest.
The goal of the brain team is to take the portals to Yogg`s brain, clear the illusion rooms within a good time, and bring the brain to 30% within 3 brain phases, without going insane.
The goal of the surface team is to clear out the tentacles after each brain stun, as much as possible. Having a clean top is very important in P3 and makes the whole fight smoother.
Details for each tentacle in this phase :

Crusher Tentacle :
HP : 2M
Time on spawn : 55sec
Casts Diminish Power, which reduces the raid`s damage by 20%. Countered by any melee ability, this is the tank`s duty. "Dance" in and out so you don`t get melee`d too much by the crusher, just interrupt the cast and move out of melee range; be ready to repeat again in a few seconds.
Hits heavily with melee, as a non-tank you should be always at max range from it.
The tactic to DPS Crusher Tentacles is as following : all ranged DPS will nuke it down, when it reaches 20% all ranged (except warlocks) swap on the corruptors while warlocks drain it down fast (due to lock imbaness).

Corruptor Tentacle :
HP : 600k
Time on spawn : 30 sec.
Casts many debuffs on random people in the raid, which need to be dispelled.
The best way to deal with these is to have melee abusing stuns and interrupts while DPSing, just toss a stun on every cd if possible, as it will cut off alot of the debuffs that would go through.
Melee should DPS these one by one.

Constrictor Tentacle :
HP : 100k
Time on spawn : 20 sec.
Grabs one raid member and squeezes him - dealing 6k damage per tick and keeping him immobilized. Paladin BoP/HoP works, but it`s best to save them for melee getting constricted right before a portal. All ranged DPS must immediately swap to this tentacle and toss 1-2 instant casts at it, and it will be down.
As a general rule, ranged shouldn`t be separated across the whole room, make sure you are in range of people who can free you, and everyone needs to swap targets immediately.
Save the paladin HoPs for right before the portal phases, there will be a constrictor 2 seconds before the first portals spawn and it stays like this for future portals I think.
Paladins should make sure they cover most of the room and quickly BoP the targeted melee (if it happens), also if you are a paladin assigned to brain, make sure both of your teammates enter before you enter yourself, so you can BoP them fast enough.

Now I`m moving over to Sara`s abilities during Phase 2 :

Psychosis : Just some random damage and sanity loss, nothing to be done about this.
Death Ray : These will go out on a regular basis, avoid them at all costs. It takes a while for them to be active, move away from that area. They follow you, so do take all means necessary to avoid them, it`s a very bad way to die here.
Brain Link : This ability is on a ~30 sec timer, when you get a brain link instantly run towards the person you`re linked to. If one of them is melee, his teammate will need to run after him towards the assigned portal spot. This is very important, as a non-brainteam member you need to accompany the melee towards his portal, he will lead the way; just follow the beam. If both are melee, they should be close to their portals and be ready to enter asap.
Malady of the Mind : This ability is on a ~30 sec timer; Sara casts it on someone, the person gets feared for 4 sec, takes some damage and loses sanity, then the effect will jump to anyone within 10yd of the previous target. To counter this, everyone must run away from the person marked with skull, it seems it`s a hard task. I`ll check out with DXE addon because it has a very obvious arrow pointing the direction you should run with malady, this must not be chained.

Dangers!

The main dangers in losing sanity in this phase are chaining malady, bad brain links and bad play in the brain room.
The replies are pretty obvious :
- Don`t chain Malady.
- Handle Brain Link properly (as explained above).
- When in the brain room, try to turn away from the skulls as much as possible.

If these 3 things are done correctly, people will have enough sanity to safely finish P3.

I think all basic points are covered, more details on next parts.

4.2 Brain team details

As I have explained in a long text in this thread (please check it again!), my goal is to make the P2 portal assignments easier both from an execution (and orientation) point of view, but also from a organisational point of view.

(Boring explanation inc)
As such, my idea was to add another layer between the "9 DPS, 8-9 tentacles" (the chaotic layer) and the "each DPS takes one tentacle" (the very precise layer). Of course, in an ideal situation we`ll asign each DPS to one tentacle but in case something unexpected happens (death, slow in entering, constricted etc), we`re back into the "chaos" layer as there isn`t anyone assigned to the tentacle that was left alone. Hence, my idea to make the "teams" each consisting of 3 DPS, making it slightly more organised by adding a "secondary assignment" to everyone.
You can (and should!) safely read from now on

To come back on Earth Azeroth, here is the organisational idea. The 9 DPSers that enter the portal are split into :
- Team Lightblue (consisting of 3 DPS)
- Team Darkblue (consisting of 3 DPS)
- Team Purple (consisting of 3 DPS)

Each of those teams will have a squad leader which is there to observe and evaluate team performance, and adjust where necessary. Also, for each of our future Yogg tries, these teams will have this precise assignments (which are detailed below), making it easier to assign people "on the run". Make sure you have understood this concept.

WARNING!

I have changed some positions from previous posts in order to make orientation easier. Please check this post carefully so you`re not surprised by these. The whole idea was to change Darkblue & Purple assignments such that each gets a "side" rather than being switched between center/right on illusions. In the end, it will be alot easier.

Now, I`m going to shamelessly copy-paste from the other thread to make the appropriate "labels" for the tentacles and portals.
First words to remember :
- Lightblue = left
- Darkblue = right
- Purple = center

Below, the detailed layout of each illusion room, as well as the portals on the surface.

There are 3 Illusion rooms : Icecrown, Stormwind, Wyrmrest. Due to layout, I refer to them as Icecrown and Non-Icecrown (Stormwind and Wyrmrest have same assignments). "E" stands for entrance, the place you get ported when you enter the portal.
Icecrown looks like this :

            4              
           5 6
 

    1                 7
   2 3               8 9
            E

In here, the tentacles are AoEd. "1 2 3" = Left group, "4 5 6"=Middle group, "7 8 9"=Right group.

Wyrmrest and Stormwind look like this :

       4   5
   3           6
  
   2           7
       1   8
         E

The tentacles are just named 1,2, ... 8 here.

Outside portals are like this :

         5
     4       6
  3             7
  2             8
    1         9
         H

The "H" portal is the southernmost one and is for the portal healer.

Now, as you can see, I`ve also added colors to make it easier to understand. Now the assignments are more "uniform" (no more icecrown misunderstandings as it was previously), and colors in the diagrams make them easier to follow.

The detailed team assignments are below :
Team Lightblue
The keyword here is LEFT.
Portals are : 1 2 3.
Tentacles (Non-Icecrown) : 1 2 3
Tentacles (Icecrown) : Left group (1 2 3)

Team Purple
The keyword here is MIDDLE.
Portals are : 4 5 6
Tentacles (Non-Icecrown) : 4 5
Tentacles (Icecrown) : Middle group (4 5 6)

Team Darkblue
The keyword here is RIGHT.
Portals are : 7 8 9.
Tentacles (Non-Icecrown) : 6 7 8
Tentacles (Icecrown) : Right group (7 8 9)


Details

Each member from each team will recieve a portal number (from 1 to 9) - for outside portals; and a tentacle number (from 1 to 8) - which applies in non-Icecrown rooms. For Icecrown, the team color will determine the side (left/right/middle), and remember that Icecrown is AoE!

Brain team strategy

According to the above, you`ll always be assigned to one tentacle in non-Icecrown rooms and to a side (to AoE) in Icecrown. Your main priority is this assignment, stick to it!
Non-Icecrown : assuming you have completed your task, and the brain isn`t stunned yet, your secondary task will be tentacles of your own team. So, if we take myself as an example, assigned to tentacle #3 (thus, Lightblue), after #3 dies I`ll go either on #1 or #2 (depending which is still alive), as they consist the team assignment. After all tentacles assigned to your team are dead, try to help wherever needed; however, at this point, a brain stun should come in the next 2-3 seconds.
Icecrown : assuming your team has AoEd their tentacles, go and help one of the other two teams. This illusion should go faster as the tentacles are grouped up.

Portals : in the unfortunate event someone took over your portal, wait a few seconds (! key part !), and enter a nearby one. The reason you wait is for others to get in first, so a whole "chain" isn`t started. However, portals shouldn`t be mixed up after some decent practice.

Most important thing : remember the OWN ASSIGNMENT -> TEAM ASSIGNMENT -> FFA order of priorities ! This is the whole point of the strategy.

(NEW)! Addition for brain DPS :
On non-Icecrown rooms, try to use a strong, bursty cooldown on a tentacle; it helps enormously. My own example is Killing Spree, as I can safely pop it on both Wyrmrest and Stormwind. Use whatever you have, as it gains more to get the brain stunned earlier rather than popping all on the brain itself.
On Icecrown, pop your aoe cooldowns and anything that helps on that matter. I`m actually doing Adrenaline Rush+Blade Flurry there (which are my strongest cooldowns), along with Killing Spree too. Same thing applies, fast stun helps more than popping cooldowns on the brain.
Remember to use your speed-increase buffs to get to the tentacles, not to the brain.
We`ll have LW drums available in both groups, meaning we will use drums on brain phases #1 and #3, and everyone will pop a swiftness pot on phase #2.

(NEW)! Addition for being in position at portals :
It is very important to take your portal as soon as it appears. When there are 17 seconds left on the portals, start moving already. I`m usually yelling that on TS, but watch your own bar and move. When there are 6-7 seconds left, everyone should be near Yogg at the spot where his portal will spawn, we`ll be a big happy circle. Don`t ever be late for the portal, it`s far more important than the little DPS you get to squeeze in.

4.3 Surface team details

Your main target is to clear up the tentacles after each brain stun. There are some class-specific tricks here, I`ll list them after some discussion went on.

General things:

Target priority is Constrictor > Crusher > Corruptor.
Always move as a group, don`t stay hugged to avoid malady chaining, but don`t wander off alone.
If you are a dot capable class, try to keep dots rolling on the corruptors while DPSing the crusher.
When the crusher reaches ~20% HP, let the warlocks to drain soul it to death, move to corruptors.
Continue assisting the main surface assist (usually Hook) when taking out corruptors too, as it`s stronger like that. If there is a choice between a southern corruptor and another one, always leave the southern one as melee will be able to zerg it down after they exit the brain.
If you are able to help with dispels, do it as much as possible, especially on the melee when portals are incoming.
Whenever someone is constricted, everyone should swap to the tentacle and kill it, before it kills the constricted person. We must be alot quicker here. Also, assist with heals as fast as possible, as we are losing far too many people on this.

[maky]

5. Phase 3

5.1 Summary

Phase 3 is the final phase of the encounter, in which the raid finishes off Yogg`s main body while also taking care of the Immortal Guardians that spawn regularly during this phase.
Yogg starts off at 30%, which is around 12M HP. Immortal Guardians spawn periodically in this phase, roughly once every 6-10 seconds, and have 425k HP.
We`ll have to finish off Yogg before we`re getting overrun by the guardians.

5.2 Empowering shadows assignments

All 3 adds will be marked every time, same marks : Star, Circle, Diamond. This is for easier reference.
2 hunters (Rigash, Tyrull) and Ark will be the taunters, meaning that they`ll each have to pick up one of the three marked guardians and drag them out of the group during Empowering Shadows.
The positionings are the following :

               | DOOR |
                 Ark          
Tyrull                           Rigash

              adds+tanks
         __________________
        /                  \
       /        YOGG        \
       |                    |



The way we`ll deal with it is like this :
- All taunters have a /target Marked Immortal Guardian, /taunt ( ) macro ready, along with some announcing (hunter channel worked great).
Ark is going to use his macro first, right as the beacons go off, thus picking up one of the 3 guardians.
At ~4 second mark, Tyrull is going to use his macro, thus picking up another* guardian.
Finally, at ~6 second mark, Rigash is going to use his macro, thus picking up the last* guardian.

Note the *-marked assumptions that the macros are going to be picked up miracuolously. There is actually a mathematical explanation for this, (can be found in this thread), it pretty much works; simply because /target picks up the nearest target that matches the name.

IMPORTANT! CHECK THIS FOR EASYMODE EXPLANATIONS

Click this link for a very intuitive animation that will explain everything.

Explanations of animation:
A,T,R are Ark, Tyrull, Rigash.
Small red circles in the middle are the mobs; when beacons go out, 3 of them get purple (marked).
At the end of the animation, the 3 circles show the Empowering Shadows range, illustrating how the positions are correct like this.

The lightblue-ish circle around them represents them being targeted, the order of targets is :
Ark (as soon as beacons go off, 0 sec mark)
Tyrull (4 sec mark)
Rigash (6 sec mark)

Notice how Ark`s mob gets targeted and pulled out of the group, then Tyrull`s mob gets targeted and pulled out, and lastly Rigash`s mob gets targeted and pulled.

IMPORTANT!

Note how each hunter is on the same "horizontal line" with the mobs, and only after he picked up his mob, he starts moving up so Emp won`t hit Yogg. This is to make sure that the macros work properly, such that no hunter picks up Ark`s target (which has happened).

The add on Ark will have to be taunted back after the empowering goes off, this is why we have 2 tanks.

5.3 Tanking assignments

Due to nature of P3 in +0, we`ll use 2 tanks. I think it`s best if you alternate the pickups (using just the "regular" taunt), but do make sure all is settled and someone can always pick up the add of Ark as soon as possible after the empowering went off.

5.4 DPS strategy and assignments

The idea for DPS is to make maximum DPS on the boss/adds while not going insane. For this, I will introduce the concept of safety level, which let`s say is 13 Sanity (lucky number!).
Once you are below 13 Sanity, you should always turn before the cooldown on gaze is over, because if you will take a few more ticks you will go insane. This is a must, noone can go insane, and make sure you have this right. Set up a power aura if you need special warning when you are below this "threshold", and make sure you clearly see when the cooldown on gaze is over. This means you turn around before the gaze starts casting, even if it hurts your DPS.
On the other hand, when above 13 Sanity, you just DPS the regular way, with turning around as soon as gaze starts, thus taking 1 tick (and losing 4 sanity). Either use the mouse to quickly turn, or improvise using keyboard so you don`t lose more than 1 tick.

Again, this concept is very important, make sure you clearly understand how it works.

As per DPS assignments, it`s best to have a minimal set of DPS on the adds while most of the people are on the boss for fewer time spent in P3. The best classes to be on the adds are rogues, unholy DKs and mages I think (not sure about mages). A shadowpriest AoEing is also very powerful, meaning that we should stick to something like this :

• 6-7 DPSers on adds - me, Ark, unholy DKs, mages
• Rest of DPSers on boss

Ara is going to help out at every Empowering AoE phase with some Mind sears; rest DPS stay on boss full-time and try not to aggro guardians that come from the opposite side of the boss!

Don`t go insane in P3, and we win.

[maky]

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[maky]

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HYSTORY: Old 10-man strategy thread
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Note that some of this information is out-dated.

10-man SUMMARY GUIDE

Testament song
or...
Yogg-Saron (10-man) super-hard mode

I`m a bit lazy to write a good-looking strategy guide for Yogg because abilities in P2 are too much even for me. Besides, there is no point in explaining P1 (worst idea of a phase ever) or P2 since they are literally the same as in a 4-keeper scenario, with a bit more emphasis on the "don`t suck" part - there is no iceblocks or stuff.

So, what is different from 1-Light ?
It`s phase 3. Without Thorim, the Immortal Guardians that spawn in that phase are... immortal. They will remain at 1 HP and the raid will have to deal with them for the rest of the fight.

How the hell is the raid supposed to deal with 10+ Guardians, if we have 2 up it`s a wipe usually? If they are immortal, why bother killing them?
To answer this question, let`s first explain the mechanics on how Immortal Guardians work. They have a self-buff which increases their damage based on their HP. More accurate, the self-buff stacks up to 9 and gives 200% extra damage per stack. For each 10% HP the Guardian is missing, a stack is removed. Meaning that a Guardian at full HP will deal 19 (!) times more damage than at 1 HP.
This means that at low HP they`re like the Junk Bots at Mimiron. Actually they hit even for less

So, what is the difference between a normal Phase 3, seeing as the Immortals at 1 HP are not a threat?
The difference comes ... from the abilities in P3. In a 4-keeper scenario, P3 is a faceroll zerg without having to watch for anything except Lunatic Gaze. There are two abilities that matter here (second one making the big difference and actually putting the "super" in the hardmode) :

• Life Drain - Spell cast by the Guardians, they will target a random member and drain life from them. This is healing the Guardians really fast, but it can be interrupted.
• Empowering Shadows - the masterpiece (imo) of the encounter. This mechanic is a bit strange to understand at first. This ability is used 45 seconds into P3 and every 45 seconds after that. Yogg Saron will mark 1-2 Guardians (most likely 2). These 2 guardians will recieve a shadow beacon buff which lasts 10 sec. The buff itself does nothing, it`s just a counter. After the 10 seconds run out, Yogg will "shoot" Empowering Shadows at those 2 adds, giving them and any other NPC (Guardian or Yogg himself) that is within 20 yards of any of the 2 adds the Empowering Shadows buff, which is a huge heal over time that lasts 20 sec. It also stacks with itself, so if the 2 marked adds are close one to another, they will get the buff 2 times (healing for double amount). The marked adds are very visible. They turn purple, recieve a mark on their head and also change name (during those 10 seconds) to "Marked Immortal Guardian".

These abilities were never an issue before, we just killed the purple one every time.
Indeed. But now we can`t kill them, so we`ll have to find a way to mitigate/burn through the heal since they will start to deal more damage if they heal up.

Having these in mind, P3 turns from a "control & management" phase to a really, really heavy and intensive DPS race.

And now, I will present my first idea of a strategy based on the research I did for the fight. I`m not sure of the numbers and these are very important in here. So we will have to adjust.
I`m very happy to say my class is kinda required in a 10-man kill   Rogues here are priceless due to the fact that one ability is very useful against both of the things we need to worry about - Fan of Knives.
FoK spreads wound poison across all the adds, pop it before Empowering and the heal will be cut to half. When specced (and it should be specced for this encounter), FoK also interrupts spellcasts, making Life Drain interrupts such alot easier.
A good raid setup for this kill has 1 tank, 7 DPS and 2 healers. The more warlocks, the better; but there will also have to be a few melee for the brain and 1-2 taunt-capable classes.
P1 and P2 go normal, should aim for P2 within 2 brain phases but wait to 3 if it`s needed to clear up top. Actually I`m thinking to do 3 on purpose, at first portal brain team nukes it ~10 sec then goes out and helps on clearing tentacles. Enrage won`t be an issue due to the new soft-enrage in P3.
As soon as P3 starts, BL is popped and everyone nukes the hell out of the boss. Pots, cooldowns, everything. Immortals are on 10 sec timer, tank first 2 with shield wall (glyphed and talented imo). After this, I swap to guardians, and I get some help with some dots, but rest DPS stays on Yogg unless Immortals are too much to handle for me (it can be that I need 1 more to help clear the initial wave of 2-3).
First empowering shadows will come at 45 sec mark, we should aim for good % on Yogg here (dunno what it is, I`d say 20% or below). It will be either 1 add or 2 marked. There are many options here, what I`d choose is to have one being taunted away from the group, while the others are jsut moved away from yogg so he doesn`t get the heal himself. I`ll FoK them all before the fire, and with help from 2 DPSers we can burst through the AoE. As the one that`s being taunted, a DK/druid/pala can taunt it away from the group. After the beacon goes through, move it back to the pile that gets AoEd (should be moved near Yogg so he takes damage too). If it`s only 1 add empowered, it`s ezmode (just taunt it).
From the next empowering shadows and on, there will be 2 adds marked. Rinse & repeat. At second, we`ll have to burn it a bit, and on 3rd, I`ll pop all my cooldowns meaning that DPSers can be spared for Yogg.
There shouldn`t be a 4th Empowering Shadows, or if it happens, Yogg should be on really low %, just pop shield wall again, run with the pile of adds away from yogg while all dps kills it before we die.


It`s a bit messy, I`ll try to organise it more after I`ve seen the fight.

[Thumaro]

I don't want to ruin anything here, but i thought FoK lost it's interrupting capability in 3.2.2?

[maky]

It did, they also "nerfed" their cast rate (only need dedicated interrupters on the ones that are being taunted, mage can do that).

I posted the 10-man strategy on 10 August

[Kaasrasp]

I'd like to add a couple of things that i couldnt find so fast


First off; 2 paladins with aura mastery. If we manage to kill it prior to 3.3, this will help us greatly. and by greatly i mean greatly!

These 2 paladins are to make a rotation to cover the roars in p3, so that healers can safely keep healing and minimize the death count. preferably eliminate the deathcount

Second: Sanity management. Just wanted to put some extra pressure on this -- I've seen people consistently ending on somewhere between 2 and 20 sanity, while i have also seen people consistently ending on somewhere between 30 and 50 sanity.

And no; that was not a difference between brainteam and topteam.

Conclusion: There are people who can improve drastically on this - and it will help us alot with the dps requirement in p3. --> So stay away from malady, be spread out and dont do crazy stuff


Third: p1 becomes actually lethal. We had alot of survivings on 5% health, which got healed up straight after, but with the -20?% or whatever it is from thorim - you will actually die from an explosion, regardless of the debuff. - so we need to figure out a way to do this if we want to have melee dpsing them (Perhaps a shield rotation with discpriests - though this is tricky at best.

Fourth: As for the interrupting, i think for once mages should get the dust off the counterspell combined with ellieshamans. -- Still have a macro for Lady Malande (Illidari council!) so time to dig them out if ye have em ^^

On a different note - i was also thinking of Shadowfury -- maybe the warlocks could elaborate/

Fifth: i think we should really put all our efforts into this tbh ^^ its a pro fight and a cool title/mount (extra incentive for material people )



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Right, hope some of it helped

[Ark]

Kaas:

1) Yeah. I'm not sure but I think it's 1 minute between Roars, so 2 Paladins rotating should be enough.

2) If people end the fight on 2 Sanity it either shows that they're pro, lucky or really really like to take risks. Ending on 30 or 50 either means that they are a healer, are DPSing/tanking the adds the whole time, or don't want to squeeze all the DPS out that they can for fear of going insane.

The really annoying thing about Lunatic Gaze is that it doesn't start casting as soon as the cooldown is up, so if you are at low Sanity and need to play it safe you're most likely going to spend a few seconds staring at the wall, waiting for gaze to hit. However, if you have a decent amount of Sanity you can "eat" the first tick of Lunatic Gaze, turning around ASAP and losing max 4% Sanity.

Going into P3 with 60ish or above Sanity is preferable because it means you can eat alot more first ticks of Gaze before you need to start playing it safe (my safety net is around 12-16% Sanity i.e. 3-4 ticks of gaze). If you're a warlock/healer you don't have to worry about this, of course.  

3) Melee need to just run out, every time. Except for the occasional Feint I guess.

4) Do you mean like a /stopcasting macro or something?

5) Realmfirst gogo.

[Al]

only need dedicated interrupters on the ones that are being taunted, mage can do that

I thought drain life is the spell that needs interupting which is cast by any immortal at any time, or have i missed something?

[Kaasrasp]

Kaas:

1) Yeah. I'm not sure but I think it's 1 minute between Roars, so 2 Paladins rotating should be enough.

It is. we did it like this in +1 too

2) If people end the fight on 2 Sanity it either shows that they're pro, lucky or really really like to take risks. Ending on 30 or 50 either means that they are a healer, are DPSing/tanking the adds the whole time, or don't want to squeeze all the DPS out that they can for fear of going insane.

The really annoying thing about Lunatic Gaze is that it doesn't start casting as soon as the cooldown is up, so if you are at low Sanity and need to play it safe you're most likely going to spend a few seconds staring at the wall, waiting for gaze to hit. However, if you have a decent amount of Sanity you can "eat" the first tick of Lunatic Gaze, turning around ASAP and losing max 4% Sanity.

Going into P3 with 60ish or above Sanity is preferable because it means you can eat alot more first ticks of Gaze before you need to start playing it safe (my safety net is around 12-16% Sanity i.e. 3-4 ticks of gaze). If you're a warlock/healer you don't have to worry about this, of course.  

Marked in red = what i actually meant with the sanity values i posted. Not ending p3, but ending p2 with that amount

3) Melee need to just run out, every time. Except for the occasional Feint I guess.
We've never done that before so time to start practicing then ^^
4) Do you mean like a /stopcasting macro or something?

No, rotating it, seeinc CS has a massive cd.

5) Realmfirst gogo.

Amen

[maky]

Ending P2 with X sanity left is very RNG based. I`m not saying we play 100% perfect, because we do chain malady and we should avoid that. However, both inside the brain (extremely terrible tentacle placement - RNG) and outside the brain (psychosis train, main target of malady - RNG) are "vulnerable" areas.
I know myself that on our kill attempt of +1, I entered P3 with 10 sanity. I`ve had other attempts in which I entered P3 with 70, nothing I could have helped. I don`t remember exactly, but I got about 3-4 psychosis and 1 bad link with Row (he was E I was W, gg) which screwed up my sanity big time, but it`s no biggie if you`re on adds

About interrupts, what I meant is that due to the latest changes of the encounter in 3.2.2, the drain life has been "fixed" in such a way that it doesn`t matter that much, they can`t possibly expect you to select a mob out of 15 that is casting and interrupt it (perhaps chain BE racial ? ), the only issue when it really matters is when one of the marked mobs does it - they stop when channeling it, leaving the selfhealing mob out of the aoe pile = dead tank/taunter. There`s where a ranged interrupt must be thrown out, and seeing as beacons are once every 45 sec, there won`t be any rotation needed, so the whole zerg brood must interrupt at once